{"id":463,"date":"2012-07-11T11:55:51","date_gmt":"2012-07-11T19:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/?p=463"},"modified":"2012-07-11T11:55:51","modified_gmt":"2012-07-11T19:55:51","slug":"i-am-so-good-at-tapering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/11\/i-am-so-good-at-tapering\/","title":{"rendered":"I Am SO Good at Tapering"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted at The Loop<\/a>, the blogs at Runner’sWorld.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve mentioned\u00a0before<\/a>\u00a0that the Ragnar Relay is my number one all-time favorite run, and it\u2019s coming up in two weeks. And I want to be\u00a0ready<\/em>. And I do not use italics lightly. I want to get the most out of this year\u2019s running, and for me, that means only one thing: running injury free.<\/p>\n

I am prone to blowing out my calf, one or the other (not sure what the technical term is). I even went to see a foot doctor about it, since it was happening all the time. He told me my bones were too long for my muscles, and so I was putting too much stress on them. My options were surgery, or stretching. I chose stretching. I should tell you that this is the same doctor who told me I was running wrong, that I am supposed to hit\u00a0heel first<\/em>. I don\u2019t mean to insult ducks, but what a quack.<\/p>\n

One year, I blew out my calf about two weeks before Ragnar. Ran it anyway. Back then, I was normally able to hold about a nine minute per mile average for up to ten miles. But having a bum calf meant I was lucky to manage 10\u201930\u201d per mile. Here\u2019s an irony: I was only to run at all by using a very exaggerated heel strike. Turns out it prolonged my recovery by about a month.<\/p>\n

I know a little bit better now. I saw a physical therapist, who helped me loosen up my ankles and hips, which keeps from pronating so much that my mid-foot strike moves way up closer to my toes. And I\u00a0know better than to train at race paces,<\/a>\u00a0which has also reduced the frequency of injuries.<\/p>\n

So,\u00a0last Wednesday<\/a>\u00a0was my final \u201chard run\u201d and this week I\u2019m cutting back from 5 times a week to just three. Next week I\u2019m going run just twice, two short very slow 5k. I don\u2019t want to brag, but this is not a problem for me. I know some people get really antsy when they can\u2019t run. Mentally, they know one week off won\u2019t diminish their abilities, but emotionally it eats away at them. Not me!<\/p>\n

I mean, some people are good at training. Some people thrive under the pressure of performance. Some people are wizards with nutrition, with knowing their own bodies, with finding super-awesome shoe sales and getting kick-ass socks at 90% off. My personal running gift is being a taper diva. It\u2019s like I was\u00a0made\u00a0to rest before races. (Hey, Christopher McDougall, I have great idea for a sequal:\u00a0Born to Rest. Come interview me any time you want, man).<\/p>\n

Sure, I might get a little depressed, especially since the weather\u00a0finally\u00a0turned nice here, and will only stay like this for maybe another week or so.\u00a0But I can handle it, mostly thanks to beer. Beer is a great excuse to run, on those days when you might not otherwise manage it. And, it turns out, it\u2019s a great way to survive\u00a0not\u00a0running as well.<\/p>\n

Indeed, as I write this, I am actually tapering with a Guinness Black Lager. After I post, I may go taper with a pilsner, and this weekend I plan on tapering in more than a few fine bars here in Seattle.<\/p>\n

Come to think of it, tapering is pretty great!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted at The Loop, the blogs at Runner’sWorld.com I\u2019ve mentioned\u00a0before\u00a0that the Ragnar Relay is my number one all-time favorite run, and it\u2019s coming up in two weeks. And I want to be\u00a0ready. And I do not use italics lightly. I want to get the most out of this year\u2019s running, and for me, that means … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “I Am SO Good at Tapering”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-running"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p24y52-7t","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}